Images overexposed unless taken with zoom or low light?

[point-and-shoot Minolta G400] has operated flawlessly (6 years now, maybe that's the problem) and only needed a replacement battery last year. A month ago I noticed that photos taken in very bright light came out horribly overexposed (nearly a white-out), but chalked it up to a draining battery or poor light conditions. Flash doesn't change the situation, either and it's not a problem with the settings. I can zoom in all the way, or take low-light photos and they will come out normal, but the white-out is even starting to impact macro shots - is there any way to fix this? Many thanks!

http://grab.by/43mk This is a comparison of the two EXIF datas, with the one on the left being the one that is zoomed out. It seems like the total amount of light coming in is the same if not less on the zoomed out image. When I downloaded it and took a look at it in photoshop, there was absolutely no data in the overexposed area (so not a jpg compression error). So the only thinks I can think of thats causing this is somehow, zooming out makes the shutter lag and actually take something like 1/5 second shots (for example) instead of 1/320.

When you take a picture zoomed out, does the shutter sound any slower? or is it just as fast as it is zoomed in? Is there an option to shoot "RAW"?

It's a point-and-shoot that stays on auto-focus and usually macro; I'm not sure how to look at the data to compare iso, etc. It does seem the exposure time is causing the white-out... here's a link to one of the shots: http://seetrail.blogspot.com/2010/04/som...

I have had exactly the same problem - something has gone wrong with the exposure and everything is very white! Have tried one camera repair shop but they are unable to find replacement parts. The Minolta G400 is the best camera I have had - therefore am well frustrated it can't be fixed - any help would be most welcome. Ian.

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